Attitude of the Students towards the Usage of Group Activities as a Remedy for Secondary Language Speaking Anxiety

Abstract

As literature suggests Second Language (L2) speaking has always been a challenge for students. One of the main issues is the apprehension occurring when a learner is expected to perform in the second language. As facilitators at the tertiary level, it is vital to create a low-anxiety classroom to help students with L2 speaking anxiety. This research attempts to investigate the perspective of students towards using group activities to reduce speaking anxiety in the English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom. The sample group consisted of forty-five Post Advanced Level Students from an intensive course in a private institute. A questionnaire prior to any speaking activity and weekly questionnaires while conducting both group and individual speaking activities were given to this mixed ability group for three weeks to study their attitude towards L2 speaking. Initial findings were that majority (86.7%) of students were afraid of L2 speaking due to several reasons. However, that percentage was dropped to 56.5% and 38.7% at the second and third week respectively irrespective of the medium of communication at school, and the usage of English at home. . In contrast the initial percentage of not afraid of L2 speaking (13.3%) was increased to 43.5% and 61.3% respectively at second and third week. These results clearly indicate that the students preferred group activities more than individual activities. Group activities have helped the students to make an effort to speak as there were students who did speaking activities for the first time in their life. It is recommended that group activities can be used to a certain extent as an effective tool to reduce speaking anxiety.